Being in a playful mood today, my final flying day before lambing, I am contemplating the anointment of Innsbruck Kranebitten Airport as the location of BA's best "lounge" on the European mainland. I guess the sorts of things we look for in a lounge is copious quantities of food (some of it hot) and drink (some with bubbles in them), comfortable seating, good views, WIFI, plenty of space, in situ WCs, perhaps waiter service for those who enjoy that sort of thing, and the lounge staff tutting at anyone using their mobile telephones too loudly. Well, dear ladies and gentlemen of this august board, the INN lounge has all of this!

Now unfortunately it isn't the case that BA has open new facility there without telling anyone, it is €10 voucher arrangement,offered to Club Europe and those with Silver/Sapphire status or higher, which is similar to the system in Salzburg. I’ll put a note in the Europe lounge database about that.



The voucher is personalised in advance and claimed at check-in, so don't crash through to security if HBO. It can be used landside or airside. However airside there is only a small stand-up bar in the Schengen area, and nothing at all in non Schengen area after passport control. But landside there is a rather magnificent, if rather inevitably named, Fly Inn Bistro, operated by Eurest.

There is plenty of inviting seating indoors, there’s a snug area near the bar with sofas and armchairs, it also has an outdoor terrace with absolutely stunning, breathtaking views of the runway and the surrounding mountains. There is a smokers’ end to this terrace too. The restaurant is divided into two sections, a self service area, and a full waiter service restaurant section.







The €10 voucher gets you quite a good range of goodies in both areas. So a humble yet refreshing glass of sparkling water will take €2.80 for 50cl, you can have perhaps a Goulash soup with that and maybe a torte too. Or you can splash out on 3 bottles of Bavarian beer (between €3.60 and €3.90 each, 0.33 cl), or a 2 glass mini bottle of Prosecco for €8.20.





For those with more ambition: The hot dishes are not too clear in my photo, but the mains are helpfully €9.80 (and my ropey German can work out that Thursday is roast chicken breast with ratatouille and herb flavoured rice). The alternative is typically a pasta dish at €7.80. So a group of 4 people could pool their vouchers and get quite a spread for it.





The only catch, as far as I can see, is that the Fly Inn only opens at 10 hrs on Monday to Thursday, when some of BA's flights leave at 11:10 hrs. Other days the facility is open earlier and BA’s flight leaves later. But as you can see I quite cheerfully waited until the inbound BA service had fully landed before heading my way through security and passports.

INN has one of the most stunning arrivals and departures of any airport, up there with Gibraltar and Hong Kong (when it passes through the city). The routing typically takes the landing aircraft through a cavern of mountains, along the Inn valley and then over the historic city of Innsbruck. But that’s perhaps the topic of another thread.

Previous older thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...innsbruck.html